One Cup Down, One Promotion to Go

 There is a quiet, comfortable dignity in having a prophecy fulfilled, even when that prophecy involves a meek exit from the League Cup on a Tuesday night.

As expected, Nuno shuffled the pack, sending out a rotated side that spent much of the evening looking like eleven people who had been given the same map but were heading for completely different destinations. We kept Fulham uncomfortably close, but when the game reached the point where it needed a proper surge of collective will, we simply didn’t have it. Neither the determination nor, if we’re being brutally honest, the quality required to drag ourselves into the next round.

It wasn’t entirely devoid of cheer, mind.

The highlight was undoubtedly Pablo finally finding the back of the net. A thoroughly satisfying moment in an otherwise fairly tepid affair, and one that was probably worth staying awake for.

But the real victory came afterwards, when the medical staff conducted their traditional post-cup-exit inspection and discovered that everyone was still in one piece. Nobody broke anything. Nobody pulled a hamstring. Nobody limped off with a season-ending injury. Every starter survived with nothing more serious than bruised pride and mildly sweaty dampened kit.

In the grand ledger of Tuesday night League Cup exits, that counts as a minor triumph.

The slate is clear, the distraction is removed and we can now return our full, undivided attention to the league. Promotion remains the main event, and frankly, I’m perfectly happy for the League Cup to become somebody else’s problem.

If we find ourselves cruising along nicely come January, perhaps we can dust off the optimism and have a proper, run in the FA Cup.

Until then, back to the real work.